Archive for Native American
Mar
16
Andrew Walker: Praises for Jim Haas and MacNeil’s “Sun Vow”
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Our post of March 9, 2023 shared Dr. Andrew Walker’s praise for Jim Haas’ recent Bio of Hermon MacNeil
Walker, since 2011 has been has been Director at the Amon Carter Museum of Fort Worth, Texas.
His knowledge of MacNeil is evident in the volume “Shaping the West.” MacNeil’s sculpture of the ‘Sun Vow’ graces its cover (see photo above). Published by the Denver Art Museum, Walker contributed the essay entitled: “Hermon Atkins MacNeil and the 1904 World’s Fair: A Monumental Program for the American West.” Praise from Andrew Walker constitutes worthy acclaim.
It is all in the faces – the ideals passed to a new generation.
While highlighting the work of Hermon Atkins MacNeil, Dr. Walker illustrates how the 1904 World’s Fair in St Louis included a monumental sculpture initiative. He does this with narrative and photo description of the major sculptures that formed the grounds, fountains, waterfalls and buildings of the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in Saint Louis. The current St. Louis Art Museum (where Walker was previously a curator) was the “Palace of Fine Arts” conceived by Cass Gilbert, architect of the fair grounds (and later the US Supreme Court Building). Over a century later, MacNeil’s three sculpture relief panels still look down from their vantage point above the three sets of doors at the main entrance.
The ‘Sun Vow’ at the MMA – NYC – with Daniel Chester French’s “Angel of Death” in relief in background (See also Webmaster’s <= Comment at left. The ‘Sun Vow’ at the MMA – NYC – with Daniel Chester French’s “Angel of Death” in relief in background (See also Webmaster’s <= Comment at left.
The more I study this sculpture (as other MacNeil pieces?) the more new details I find in MacNeil’s creations.
The photo at right shows MacNeil’s Sun Vow with Daniel Chester French’s “Angel of Death” in the background. French and MacNeil were colleagues and collaborators. The Angel of Death has grasped the hand of the sculptor.
[See more of this Daniel Chester French sculpture, CLICK HERE.]
Webmaster’s Comment: The beauty and ‘irony’ of the two sculptures together, long after the death of the two sculptors and the vanishing of the culture of the Sun Vow that MacNeil has memorialized, are a compounded and profound statement of the power of art and artists.
SOURCES:
-
SHAPING THE WEST : American Sculptors of the 19th Century. With additional essays by Alice Levi Duncan, Thayer. Tolles, Peter Hassrick, Sarah E. Boehme, and Andrew Walker.
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Mar
09
James E. Haas: Author & Historian of College Point
Posted by: | CommentsAbout the Author
James E. Haas is a fifth generation College Pointer and a graduate of St. John’s University in Jamaica, NY. He has written ten books, three on subjects related to the history of College Point. With a Masters Degree in Religious Education, Haas has written widely on church-related subjects, liturgy and prayer with and for children as well as religious education.
The biography has received glowing comments such as these from Andrew Walker:
James E. Haas tells a compelling story of a sculptor who made a tremendous, but underappreciated impact on the American cultural scene during his lifetime.The level of research is clearly a compassionate focus in a conventional biographical approach. MacNeil is not a Rodin or a Picasso where drama dictates his biography. Rather, his story reaches heights of dramatic impact in those decisions and efforts that charted the nations priorities and challenges.At times, this dramatic arc of MacNeil’s artistic activity is deeply connected to broader social and cultural life during times of change. MacNeil’s life after his experiences in the early 20th century continued as an expected life of a committed artist, and this biography does justice to his contributions, and his artistic achievement.Andrew Walker — Director, Amon Carter Museum of American Art. — Fort Worth, TX
This volume on Hermon MacNeil is the 5th history Haas’ has authored about College Point. it any surprise that he has published 5 books of
Here are 5 available titles:
To Honor Fallen Heroes: How a Small German-American Village in New York City Experienced the Great War (1)
by James E. Haas | Mar 8, 2018
FREE delivery on $25 shipped by Amazon.
Out of Print–Limited Availability.
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Oct
01
Chicago Monuments Project Says “REMOVE ‘The Marquette Jolliet Illini Memorial'”
Posted by: | CommentsREMOVE IT!
A RED “X” and scribbles mark the decision to remove this monumental piece funded a century ago by the Benjamin Franklin Ferguson Monument Fund to adorn Chicago boulevard and green-ways with historic statuary.
The Chicago Monuments Project says REMOVE IT!
So, we have “X-ed” out the Marquette Jolliet Illini sculpture from our photo posed in 2010.
After gracing the Douglas Park neighborhood for nearly a century, this sculpture by Hermon A. MacNeil is judged to deserve the
Axe–ually, it may get:
- Removal,
- Storage, and possibly
- Lending or Donation to a private venue.
The Report of the Chicago Monuments Project reads, in part:
“Jacques Marquette-Louis Jolliet Memorial”
» The sculpture reinforces stereotypes
about American Indians and glorifies
a complicated and painful history of Western expansion. It features a cowering American Indian, following submissively in the footsteps of MarquetteRecommended Next Steps
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» The artwork should be placed in storage
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» The city should initiate a conversation with the Marshall Square community, where the artwork is located, to study options for the development of new public art at the site
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» Agencies may also consider the long- term loan or donation of this artwork to a private organization
MacNeil’s depiction of Marquette has the priest with an inviting open right hand and raising a cross above his heart.
Since 1926 this work has graced the bend of Marshall Boulevard and 24th Boulevard.
VISITING THE MONUMENT
While it is still standing, the monument can be reached by:
Driving south down through Douglas Park on Sacramento Blvd to Marshall Blvd as it becomes West 24th Blvd. There you can find the 1925 bronze grouping of Pere Marquette, Louis Jolliete, and an Illinois Indian that faces the greenway of the boulevard.
The monument stands on a six-foot (6′) base with bronze groupings almost twelve feet (12′) tall. It’s removal will not be an easy extraction
Chicagoans approaching the Monument along Marshall and 24th Avenue Boulevards are greeted by the Jesuit’s open hand.
FYI: MORE Discussion~ will come!
the Webmaster
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Related posts:
- “Chicago Sculpture in the Loop” features Hermon A. MacNeil’s Work at Marquette Building (3) Gregory H. Jenkins has posted stories of the Marquette Bronze…
- Hermon MacNeil Sculpture in the Chicago Loop (3) Gregory H. Jenkins AIA, Chicago architect and keeper of the …
- Marquette Statue in Chicago (3) Today we took a short trip south from our daughter’s…
- More Marquette Statue Photos (3) Our Photo journey to this statue produced more pictures than…
- ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ What’s the FUTURE of the PAST? ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The Chicago Monuments Project (3) All of Hermon MacNeil’s Lifeworks enshrine the PAST. SO… What…
- Why the Chicago Monument Project? ~~ FAQ (3) Frequently Asked Questions Why is Chicago doing this? Chicago joins..
- What’s the FUTURE of the PAST? ~ The Chicago Monuments Project. All of Hermon MacNeil’s Lifeworks enshrine the PAST. SO… What is the Future of the Past?
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Nov
06
Charles Francis Browne … MacNeil … Garland ~ Part Two
Posted by: | CommentsA recent post of Aug 13, 2021, highlighted a hidden bust of C. F. Browne, an early friend of Hermon A. MacNeil:
MacNeil’s bust of friend Charles Francis Browne – 1994
“A 1894 Sculpture of Charles F. Browne ~ ~ ~ by Hermon A. MacNeil.” =>
Out of public view, deep in the archives of the Chicago Art Institute rests a 127 year old bust of Charles F. Browne, American artist.
Of all the thousands of talented artists, craftsmen, and sculptors building the “White City” in 1892, three gifted young men would travel in 1895 by train and horseback to the NEW American “West.” They would share life-forming experiences, there in the “Four Corners” area where Colorado meets New Mexico meets Arizona meets Utah.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ THREE FRIENDS on a JOURNEY ~
~ Charles Francis Browne ~
~ Hermon Atkins MacNeil ~
~ Hannibal Hamlin Garland ~
Charles Francis Brown, at 33, was the oldest of the three. 
For a decade he searched to discover and develop his talents. At the Chicago World’s Fair he began by painting murals in the Children’s Building.
Charles was born in Massachusetts to parents with a long history in New England. His father was a builder and contractor. Charles had three siblings. The oldest became a headmaster; a sister died in childhood; and his younger brother a foreman in a watch factory.
In his second year of high school, Charles became sickly. For two more years he was treated for appendicitis (then called “inflammation of the bowels”). He never returned to school, but instead worked ill-suited as a clerk in a hat store. Eventually he started design work for a lithograph company.
The artistic environment and peers led him to evening classes at Boston Museum of Fine Arts. He worked in stained glass (to please his practical father). Working days with lithographs and studying nights at art school, he developed many visual skills. But entry into the Art School required passing rigorous exams in human anatomy. For which he was unprepared.
So in 1885, at the age of twenty-five he moved to Pennsylvania and enrolled in the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts — working full time under realist painter Thomas Eakins.
Nai-U-Chi Chief of the Bow, Zuni. 1895 by C.F. Browne – Sid Richardson Museum – Retieved at https://www.illinoisart.org/charles-francis-browne. October 30, 2021.
Completing three years of study there, he went to Paris to study with renowned figural painter Jean-Léon Gérôme. His sojourns in the French countryside, inspired many paintings of landscapes in both oils and watercolors. Returning to the U.S. in 1891, he taught briefly at Beloit College before moving south to Chicago.
The Children’s Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition became the next canvas of his murals. Browne’s work became the walls of the building. After the Fair, his skills were sought as an instructor at the rapidly growing Art Institute of Chicago. MacNeil and Garland were part of the vast community of artists assembled in Jackson Park — home to the exhibition.
His trip in 1895 with sculptor Hermon Atkins MacNeil to the Southwest yielded subjects for his portraits of American Indian and figural scenes.
Later, 1897 he founded the journal Brush and Pencil, of which he served as editor until 1900. He produced hundreds of paintings in his career ahead.
Lorado Taft, provided a moving tribute to Browne at close of a fine life and career:
“No one among us has contributed more abundantly of his time to the service of the community… All of this activity combined with earnest, unremitting and valuable aid… would seem to be enough for one man. But… Mr. Browne, the citizen, has ever been first and foremost an artist. Never have we known a man more in love with nature… When one thinks of the joy that he has been able to record and to carry over to other hearts… it seems as though the most enviable of all estates is to be a landscape painter – a landscape painter like Charles Francis Browne!” CREDIT: https://www.illinoisart.org/charles-francis-browne
~~~~~~~~
Hermon A.MacNeil
Hermon was seven years younger than Browne. Their friendship is documented by the fact that MacNeil invited Browne to share his studio, persuaded him to pose for the bust, and traveled to the Four Corners with Garland as guide. 
MacNeil, with the recommendation of Augustus Saint Gaudens, went from New York to the Chicago World’s Fair to work under Philip Martiny, who was sculpting the Electricity Building. After proving himself on the edifice spandrels and ornamentals, he was assigned “two statuary figures” on the upper structure. The Electricity Building’s main entrance was dominated by an imposing statue of Benjamin Franklin. Inside were housed the Tower of Light, displays by Western Electric, General Electric, American Bell Telephone, Edison’s latest phonographs and hundreds of other electrical exhibits from around he world. The exhibit was truly a celebration of the “modern” era of “Electricity.”
In 1894 after the Fair, Hermon modeled, completed, and cast the bronze bust of of Browne. Their trip together in 1895 inspired a decade of sculpting Native American images. Four decades of memorials, monuments, statues, building pediments and facades, coins, medallions, followed from his College Point Studio.
The “Prayer for Rain” depicts the Moqui (Hopi) runner carrying the snakes to the river to activate the rain cycle of nature.
SILVER -One of only 20 minted ~ SOM.#3 – 1931 Hopi Prayer for Rain 1931
In 1931, Hermon MacNeil would again memorialize that Four Corners trip in his design for the Society of Medalists — Third Issue. Nearly four decades later that inspiration would return afresh in the “Hopi Runner” — “Prayer for Rain”
~~~~~~~~~
Garland, the leader of the adventure, was 31 years-old when he led his two friends on their tour to the west. His story and exploits have been told in many other postings on this website:
Hamlin Garland: Story in 3 Parts by Dan Leininger, webmaster
PART 1 – “Hamlin Garland ~ MacNeil’s Guide” MacNeil and Hamlin Garland
PART 2 – The Garland Homestead in Wisconsin ~ A Hamlin Garland Memorial
PART 3 – Hermon MacNeil and Hamlin Garland ~ Connections Through the Years
Hamlin Garland was an accomplished novelist
Main-Travelled Roads was his first major success. It was a collection of short stories inspired by his days on the farm. He serialized a biography of Ulysses S. Grant in McClure’s Magazine before publishing it as a book in 1898. The same year, Garland traveled to the Yukon to witness the Klondike Gold Rush, which inspired The Trail of the Gold Seekers (1899). He lived on a farm between Osage, and St. Ansgar, Iowa for quite some time. Many of his writings are based on this era of his life.
By the time of the Chicago Worlds Fair in 1893,[7] Hamlin moved to Chicago, where he lived at 6427 South Greenwood Avenue in the Woodlawn neighborhood. He is considered “a significant figure in the Chicago Literary Movement” and “one of Chicago’s most important authors”.[8] Moccasin Ranch Park, located near address, is named in his honor.[8]
- “Sell the cook the stove if necessary and come. You must see the fair”
-Novelist Hamlin Garland to his parents in 1893-
In Illinois, Garland married Zulime Taft, the sister of sculptor Lorado Taft, and began working as a teacher and a lecturer.[9]
A prolific writer, Garland continued to publish novels, short fiction, and essays. In 1917, he published his autobiography, A Son of the Middle Border. The book’s success prompted a sequel, A Daughter of the Middle Border, for which Garland won the 1922 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. After two more volumes, Garland began a second series of memoirs based on his diary. Garland naturally became quite well known during his lifetime and had many friends in literary circles.[10] He was made a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1918.[4] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlin_Garland)
CREDITS:
- Wendy Greenhouse, PhD. “Charles Francis Browne 1859–1920″. M. Christine Schwartz Collection (https://schwartzcollection.com/artist/charles-francis-browne/ ) retrieved September 20, 2021. This extensive biographical summary of the life of Charles Francis Browne is the most extensive and detailed documentary piece posted of his life and career.
- Melissa Wolfe Ph.D. and Joel S. Dryer © Illinois Historical Art Project. “Charles Francis Browne (1859-1920).” https://www.illinoisart.org/charles-francis-browne. retrieved September 21, 2021.
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Oct
02
October 2, 1947 ~ Hermon A. MacNeil dies at 81
Posted by: | CommentsHERMON ATKINS MACNEIL
1945 Bust of Hermon MacNeil by Jo Davidson
Photo from ~1945 at MacNeil Cabin in Vermont
TRANSITIONS
On this day seventy-four years ago, Hermon Atkins MacNeil died at his College Point Studio on October 2, 1947.
The Photo at right (taken at the MacNeil Cabin in Vermont) and the Bust by Jo Davidson) both date from about 1945, just two years before his death.
The website CHICAGO LOOP.ORG celebrates architecture in the Windy City. They tell the MacNeil story this way: 1
“Unable to transition from his Beaux Arts training to a more “modern” style, he had not had a major commission for nearly 15 years. 1 When he died, the contents of the studio was “hauled out to the dump” (where, much of the collection was salvaged by neighbor, illustrator John A. Coughlin who later donated it to the Smithsonian Institution.) It hadn’t always been that way.” [See Note 1 Below] http://chicagosculptureintheloop.blogspot.com/2012/01/hermon-atkins-macneil.html
One of several “Black Pipe” modelings that MacNeil sculpted. ~1894
They continue to say: “In 1891, 25 year-old MacNeil came West to Chicago. Where he assisted Philip Martiny with sculpture at the Electricity Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition (World’s Columbian Exposition, 1893). And, where, on the Midway, he met Black Pipe, an Ogala Sioux, performing at Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Native Americans and their culture became the inspiration for MacNeil’s art for years to come. By late 1895 he was on his way to Monument Valley with Hamlin Garland and C.F. Browne — after working with Edward Kemeys at the Marquette (and no doubt hearing stories of Kemeys Wyoming adventures some 20 years earlier). The travels West were just the beginning.
On Christmas Day 1895 after winning the Prixe de Rome, he married Carol (Carrie) Brooks (one of Lorado Taft’s “White Rabbits – and a sculptor in her own right”). They sailed to Europe to take up three years in residence at the American Academy in Rome. And re-entered the Ecole des Beaux Arts in 1900. By 1901 he and Carol (with their two children) returned to America and established their studio in College Point on Long Island. With an entire career before them.
To quote Chicago Architecture, “National in scope, Beaux Arts in inspiration, MacNeil returned to Chicago in 1909, briefly, for the Cook County Seal Commission.”
Hermon MacNeil ~ Seal of Cook County on the Courthouse ~ 1908
But my favorite remains his Four Panels of Father Marquette life scuplted in 1895 in Chicago. “Where inspiration, youth, opportunity, and a beautiful, capable wife converged with the past and the future —
at the Marquette Building.”
Panel 4 – “The de Profundis was intoned … Fr. Marquette’s coffin carried.
Black Pipe, Sioux warrior from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, stranded after the 1893 World’s Fair closed. MacNeil took him in to his studio after he was desolate in Chicago.
The man front and center is Black Pipe. (See detail at right).
He is MacNeil’s model for the Ogalla Sioux Warrior memorialized at 140 South Dearborn Street. Bearing the coffin of Father Marquette.
See the entire collection of Marquette photos at the CHICAGO LOOP.ORG
Originally Posted by chicagoandpointsnorth@gmail.com
Black Pipe lived at MacNeil’s studio, modeled for him, and worked as a gardener and assisted in tasks.
MacNeil’s bronze of Blackpipe, a Sioux warrior he befriended in 1893 (source Smithsonian Archives)
NOTE 1:
- The comment “Unable to transition from his Beaux Arts training to a more “modern” style, he had not had a major commission for nearly 15 years.” is not entirely accurate. The “15 years” comment ignores the following: 1) two statues (Alfred H. Terry and John Sedgwick) on Connecticut Capitol building in 1934; 2) the statue of George Rogers Clark at the National Monument in Vincennes, Indiana dedicated by President FDR in 1936; and 3) the Pony Express Monument in St. Joseph, Missouri in 1940. It also overlooks 8 years of the Great Depression, plus 7 years of MacNeil’s retirement during those same fifteen years. Furthermore, the word “unable” seems presumptuous. Whether MacNeil was “unable” to transition or simply “chose not to transition” to a more modern style seems a false dilemma for speculatation. His sixty-plus-years of sculpting in the Beaux Arts style fully documents his “able-ity” and his preference for creative expression. This website offers continual documentation of those abilities.
Related posts:
- Part 2: “Primitive Indian Music” ~ 1894 bronze casting discovered! Is this an early prototype of 1901 “Primitive Chant to the Great Spirit.” ??? (6) A recent inquiry from James Dixon has revealed a previously…
- “Chicago Sculpture in the Loop” features Hermon A. MacNeil’s Work at Marquette Building (5) Gregory H. Jenkins has posted stories of the Marquette Bronze…
- Hermon MacNeil Sculpture in the Chicago Loop (5) Gregory H. Jenkins AIA, Chicago architect and keeper of the …
- ~ ~ ~ “The Most Happy Young Man I Know” ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Hermon A. MacNeil ~ Success & Marriage! (5) 1895 Hermon Atkins MacNeil, American Sculptor (1866-1947) MacNeil’s bronze of…
- “PRIMITIVE INDIAN MUSIC” ~ Part 3: 1894 Eda Lord’s Ticket to the Chicago World’s Fair (5) Eda Lord, (the woman who purchased the MacNeil bronze statue,…
- MacNeil “Merry Christmas” (5) Christmas Greetings from the home of Hermon and Carol MacNeil. …
Related Images:
Aug
13
A 1894 Sculpture of Charles F. Browne ~ ~ ~ by Hermon A. MacNeil.
Posted by: | CommentsOut of public view, deep in the archives of the Chicago Art Institute rests a 127 year old bust of Charles F. Browne, American artist.
Cast in Bronze with a dark brown patina, the piece is signed on pedestal; “MacNeil ’94” / “American Art Bronze Foundry. J. Berchem. / Chicago”
Charles Francis Browne, MacNeil Colleague and American Artist.
The subject was Hermon MacNeil’s colleague, frontier traveling companion, and studio mate in their Marquette Building studio. The piece came out of their years in Chicago after the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.
The archival piece enters its third century of history “OFF VIEW” at the archives of the Art Institute of Chicago. Here we offered it exclusively to You, —“Friends of Hermon Atkins MacNeil” — & followers of ‘HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com’. ENJOY !!
1895. With Hamlin Garland as their guide, the pair rode by train and horse back to the south west territories of the Navajo, Hopi, (Moqui). MacNeil recalled years later, “We found Indians a plenty and perhaps because I was keenly interested in them I was in heaven and I flared to a high pitch, working from sunrise to dark. …”
“Browne painted murals for the Children’s Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition and became an instructor at the Art Institute of Chicago’s rapidly growing school.” 2
Hamilin Garland and Browne were “double” brothers-in-law having married sisters of Lorado Taft, the chief sculptor of the Exposition. Taft was the brother of both of their wives. They all along with MacNeil were part of the Eagles Nest, a summer artist colony in Oregon, Illinois. Browne was a founder of the summer group.
Portrait of Charles F. Browne by H. A. MacNeil 1894. Art Institute of Chicago. [Signed on pedestal; “MacNeil ’94” / “American Art Bronze Foundry. J. Berchem. / Chicago”] 1
The dating of the bust of C. F. Browne precedes their venture to the Southwest Territory but documents the shared years of their early careers in the 19th century.
Writing in 1943, MacNeil recalls these years in Chicago:
“I took a small studio in Chicago and tried to see if I could make a go of it. C. F. Browne, painter, was also stranded there and I invited him to share a studio with me. During that year (evenings) I was asked to teach sculpture and drawing in the school of the Art Institute and also had the good fortune to have four bas-reliefs to do illustrating the life of Pere Marquette.” [ MacNeil, Autobiography
MacNeil’s four bas-reliefs of the life of Pere Marquette still make frame the four-door entrance of the building
The Marquette Building panels after cleaning efforts several years ago sparkle with history and beauty at the 140 South Dearborn Street entrance.
Chicago Architecture celebrated the building renovation and mentioned the 126 year old sculpture panels”
“At the main entrance are four bronze relief sculptures by Hermon A. MacNeil illustrating Father Marquette and Louis Joliet’s travels. They depict the pair launching their canoes, meeting Native Americans, arriving at the Chicago River, and interring Marquette’s body. On the revolving doors are kick plates with tomahawks and push plates with panther heads designed by Edward Kemeys (of the Art Institute lions fame). The vestibule features French and Catholic motifs like fleurs-de-lis and the cross.”
~ ~ ~ ~ Chicago Art Institute Notations for this work ~ ~ ~ ~
Portrait of Charles F. Browne by H. A. MacNeil 1894.
Portrait of Charles Francis Browne. Date: 1894
Artist: Hermon Atkins MacNeil. American, 1866–1947
ABOUT THIS ARTWORK: Currently Off View
SOURCES:
- Art Institute of Chicago. Portrait of Charles Frances Brown by Hermon MacNeil. https://www.artic.edu/artworks/102974/portrait-of-charles-francis-browne
- See Also: M Christine Schwartz Collection. https://schwartzcollection.com/artist/charles-francis-browne/
Related Images:
Dec
10
MacNeil Christmas Cards
Posted by: | CommentsHermon MacNeil often made Christmas Cards that featured his own drawings and studio images.
MacNeil Christmas card from 1922.
Here’s a Card from 1922 ==>>
This pencil sketch proclaiming “Merry Christmas 1922” appears reminiscent of MacNeil’s 
“Sun Vow” 
In that composition, a Native Chief, possibly Sioux, coaches a young warrior through a rite of passage — shooting an arrow into the of the sun.
In MacNeil’s 1922 Christmas drawing, a similar pair of figures wave a banner of seasons greetings. Their presence seems a reprise of the Sun Vow sculpture.
While that was over a century ago, here’s what we can know today:
- We know being an artist, MacNeil often carried and kept sketchbooks.
- We know he would sit in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair with his sketchbook.
- We know he sketched D. L Moody at an interdenominational Sunday Worship in Wild Bill’s Arena (since no Sunday shows were allowed and Moody rented the venue).
- We know he traveled, sketched and sculpted on his trip to the Southwest territories in 1895 (New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado).
- We know he formed clay and plaster images there; and he shipped many back to Chicago.
- We know that his memory of Native images dominated his sculptures for the next ten years.
I suspect that the idea for this card sprang up from the artist’s visual memory, perhaps, revived from an old sketchbook. A dusty record of images that he first saw three decades earlier at the Worlds Columbian Exposition of 1893.
Here’s More from this website:
“Native American Themes: His first introduction to native subjects came through Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. During the 1893 Worlds Fair, Buffalo Bill’s troupe performed in a carnival setting outside the main entrance. Fascinated, MacNeil’s artist-eye and imagination took every opportunity to see the show and sketch the ceremonies and rituals of Indian life — MacNeil often carried a sketch book. He latter befriended Black Pipe, a Sioux warrior from the show, who he found down-and-out on the Chicago streets after the carnival midways of the Fair had closed. MacNeil invited Black Pipe to model for him and assist in studio labors, which he did for over a year. Inspired by these native subjects and encouraged by Edward Everett Ayers, MacNeil found a respect for this vanishing Native culture and made subsequent trips to the southwest. When the Marquette Building was constructed, MacNeil was awarded a commission to complete Four Bas Relief Panels of over the main entrance. His work depicts four scenes from Marquette’s trip through the Great Lakes region.”
“In the summer of 1895, along with Hamlin Garland (a writer) and C. F. Browne (a painter), he traveled to the four-corners territories (now, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah) seeing American Indians (Navajo, and Moqui — now Hopi) in their changing cultural element on various reservations. While there, he was asked to sculpt, out of available materials, a likeness of Chief Manuelito. The Navajo warrior had died in despair after being imprisoned for four years as a renegade by the U. S. Government (Col. Kit Carson) twenty-five years earlier. Manuelito’s likeness (click here), made of available materials, brought tears to his widow’s eyes, and remains an object of cultural pride in Gallup, New Mexico to this day.” SOURCE: Click HERE
Related Images:
Oct
21
The Hamlin Garland Memorial Highway ~
Brown County, South Dakota
Hamlin Garland https://mypoeticside.com/wp-content/uploads/gallery-images/e6845fc.jpeg
Hamlin Garland Highway in Brown County South Dakota.
[Credit: Hamlin Garland Society]
In June 1936, the Brown County Commissioners named a section of Brown County Highway 11, for a total of 10 miles, the “Hamlin Garland Memorial Highway.” This section travels past the homestead of Garland’s father, Richard, who homesteaded in 1881. In 1998, new signs were placed along this stretch of paved road noting the name of the highway.
[ Hamlin Garland Society of Aberdeen, SD http://www.garlandsociety.org/ ]
Hamlin Garland Highway in South Dakota.
GARLAND TOWNSHIP–This township was named after Hamlin Garland, a novelist, who lived in this area with his pioneer parents, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Garland. The land south and west of Columbia [and Ordway] was immortalized by this writer in “Among the Corn Rows,” and “A Son of the Middle Border.”
SOURCE: Information courtesy of Gene Aisenbrey ~ Hamlin Garland Society of Aberdeen, SD Contact: garlandsociety@gmail.com Copyright © 2015
Garland information on the web:
In 1895 HAMLIN GARLAND led Hermon MacNeil and Francis Brown to the four corners area (AZ, NM, CO, UT) to witness the Native American people and culture there.
-
Hamlin Garland Highway in South Dakota. [SOURCE: Information courtesy of Gene Aisenbrey ~ Hamlin Garland Society of Aberdeen, SD ~ Contact: garlandsociety@gmail.com Copyright © 2015 ]
- Hamlin Garland Biography (Wisconsin Authors and Their Works)
- A Biography of three pages
- One of Garland’s Grant Interviews with Julia Dent Grant (1826-1902) widow of General U. S. Grant
- SD Historical Society: “Hamlin Garland’s South Dakota: History and Story” https://www.sdhspress.com/journal/south-dakota-history-9-3/hamlin-garlands-dakota-history-and-story/vol-09-no-3-hamlin-garlands-dakota.pdf
- A brief Garland bio (Al Filreis)
~ A Poem by Hamlin Garland ~
“Do you fear the force of the wind,
The slash of the rain?
Go face them and fight them,
Be savage again.
Go hungry and cold like the wolf,
Go wade like the crane:
The palms of your hands will thicken,
The skin of your cheek will tan,
You’ll grow ragged and weary and swarthy,
But you’ll walk like a man!”
Their adventure in 1895 led into Native settlements in Colorado, Arizona (Moqui, Navajo), New Mexico, and Utah:
- Hamlin Garland, led the tour to the southwest in the summer of 1895. MacNeil & Browne wanted to gain direct experience of American Indians to inform their art. What the trio found reflected in their respective painting, sculpture and writing.
- MacNeil sculpted a cement statue of Chief Manuelito for trader C. N. Cotton under a tent in the dessert. His subsequent sculptures of Native Americans after that summer of 1895 continued his cultural interest. That fascination began with his friendship and sculpting of Black Pipe, the Sioux warrior. He first met Black Pipe at the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. The Sioux modeled for MacNeil and later worked in his studio for over a year before MacNeil’s trip with Garland.
- Charles Francis Browne was a painter and friend (his room mate in Paris) who accompanied Hermon MacNeil and the author.
- Edward Everett Ayers was an art patron to both MacNeil and Browne. He had been a Civil War Calvary officer stationed in the southwestern United States. He became a lumberman who made a fortune selling railroad ties and telephone poles. He urged MacNeil to travel to see the vanishing West of the American Indian. He became an arts benefactor whose art collections are now housed by the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as, the Newberry Library. His copy of MacNeil’s “Moqui Runner” still graces the Newberry Library.
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Sep
12
I had the privilege of visiting the MAM site this week and will post a larger story soon. For now, here’s a quick shot of MacNeil’s “Sun Vow”.
Here’s a quick shot of MacNeil’s “Sun Vow” with yours truly camera in hand.
I had the privilege of visiting the MAM site this week and will post a larger story soon. For now, here’s an editorial by Frank Gerard Godlewski, Historian & NY Armory Arts Week Curator
It demonstrates a strong strain of public opinion in Montclair, NJ, concerning the “Sun Vow” a gift of Wm T. Evans. Montclair citizens have viewed and driven by this MacNeil original for over 100 years. What follows below is a re-posting of a Patch Montclair facebook page: ( https://patch.com/new-jersey/montclair/respecting-sun-vow )
Montclair Op-Ed: ‘Respecting The Sun Vow’
Regarding the Montclair Art Museum’s landscape re development proposal for the Planning Board Meeting Monday August 26 at 7:30 PM
| Updated
This post was contributed by a community member.
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Aug
21
Montclair Art Museum (NJ) Planning to Move MacNeil’s “Sun Vow”
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A grounds renovation at the Montclair Art Museum could result in the removal of the bronze Sun Vow which has been at the entrance since 1914. Plans include a reflecting pond with a newly-commissioned sculpture.
Credit: DEBORAH ANN TRIPOLDI/STAFF [Source: Montclair Local News 2019/7/03 ]
The Monclair Local contains an article by Jaimie Julia Winters titled, “Sculpture Removal, Tree Loss Concerns Raised with Outdoor Expansion”
Winters states:
Plans to upgrade the grounds of the Montclair Art Museum have been met with criticism from the community and the township’s historic preservation consultant over alterations to the “cultural landscape,” tree removals and the relocation of the bronze statue by Hermon Atkins MacNeil located at the entrance since the museum opened in 1914.
The New Plan– [SOURCE: https://www.montclairlocal.news/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Screen-Shot-2019-06-28-at-1.03.25-PM-1.png/
A new reflecting pond is planned for the grassy area in front of the museum on S. Mountain Avenue. Plans also include removing the Sun Vow sculpture and place a new, yet-to-be-commissioned piece of art in the pond. The cypress tree located in the front, reportedly planted by Van Vleck, will also be removed.
The circular driveway connecting the parking lot to the turn-around area will be repaved with granite blocks. Handicapped parking spaces along the driveway will also be reconfigured.
(Architect Paul) Sionas told the Historic Preservation Commission that original plans for the museum called for a reflecting pool and referred to a rendering dating back to 1915 of the museum front with people in top hats and with the statue in the middle of a reflecting pool.
The website has been contacted by “a group of concerned Montclair residents who want the sculpture to remain in its original location.”
Kathleen Bennett, chair of the Montclair Historic Preservation Commission, stated:
I am writing to you concerning the copy the Montclair Art Museum (NJ) of the “Sun Vow” which was given to the Montclair Art Museum when it opened in 1914. The donor was Mr. William T. Evans, who (we are told) commissioned the first copy for the front lawn of his mansion in Montclair in 1903. He gifted it to the Montclair Museum where it held pride-of-place until now. The board of the museum now want to move the sculpture to another location, as yet unknown, and replace it with a “contemporary” sculpture. We are a group of concerned Montclair residents who want the sculpture to remain in its original location.
“We feel that to move the sculpture from the front of the museum completely negates the original donor’s intentions.”
William Evans donated the Sun Vow bronze statue, which sits on a rock outside the main entrance of MAM. Bronze statues are typically duplicated in full-size. Famous works such as the Sun Vow have been reproduced in both half size and even quarter size replicas. A half-size Sun Vow (seen below) exhibits at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City (cast in 1919). The original full-size “Sun Vow” graces the Chicago Institute of Art (cast in 1901). The first-copy of the original may be on the move at MAM.
The “Sun Vow” by H. A. MacNeil graces the courtyard of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. This copy was cast in half-size later in 1919.
“Sun Vow” by Hermon MacNeil at the Art Institute of Chicago cast in 1901. [Photo by Dan Leininger, webmaster, www.HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com ]
The MAM First copy of the “Sun Vow” is older than any other except the Art Institute of Chicago. It is a historic piece in the world of art and the history of Montclair Art Museum (MAM)Note BELOW the antique book plate put out be The Montclair Art Association: (date unknown).
P.S.
Kathleen Bennett praise this website by saying: “Your website is extremely informative about Hermon Atkins MacNeil and I hope you will add Montclair’s “Sun Vow” to the site.”
Thanks Kathleen.
Here is Part One.
More to come … Stay tuned to https://hermonatkinsmacneil.com
Daniel Neil Leininger
webmaster
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Jul
26
Society of Medalist #3 ~ Hopi ~ Prayer for Rain ~ by Hermon A. MacNeil
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Rarest of the Rare! A very rare Silver – Society of Medalists #3 – by ‘H. A. MacNeil’ (in lower right).
It is “Silver.”
Only twenty-five were minted in 1931.
In the summer of 1895, Hermon MacNeil traveled to the Southwest. With Hamlin Garland and Charles Francis Browne, they journey by railroad to the four-corners region of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah.
With Garland as guide the sculptor and the artist witnessed Native American culture first hand. They visited the Hopi and Navajo reservations immersed in Native American life. They saw the “Prayer for Rain” ~ the Snake Dance ceremony depicted here on the SOM #3.
The “Prayer for Rain” depicts the Moqui (Hopi) runner carrying the snakes to the river to activate the rain cycle of nature. [SOM #3 Reverse]
ONLY 25 were made in SILVER (99.9%).
The Silver issue of MacNeil’s medallion is among the rarest of the rare.
Over sixty-times that number were struck in Bronze (1,713). Now nearly eight decades later, those are more common, but also rare and collectible. [See pictured below — at the end of this article — this author’s collection of the varied Bronze patinas of S.O.M #3.]
The next year (1932), Frederick MacMonnies sculpted a medallion celebrating Charles A. Lindbergh historic flight. 250 of those medallions were struck in Silver. That makes the Lindbergh issue ten times more common than MacNeil’s “Hopi”. (10 X 25) —
Silver minting of most SOM Issues quantities usually ranged from 50 to 125. Most often 100 silver specimens were struck. SO the 25 of the MACNEIL’S “Prayer for Rain” creations are twice as rare and up to 10 times as rare as other SOM Issues.
This, all Society of Medalists (SOM) in Silver can be considered rare. However, this MacNeil piece is definitely “THE RAREST OF THE RARE!”
This images that MacNeil’s placed of the Obverse and Reverse had been burned in his visual memory in 1895. They lived in his artist’s awareness for decades. It is no stretch to say that they inspired numerous sculptures and pieces that came out of his studio.
“The Moqui Runner,” “The Primitive Chant,” were “living” in his mind when he first saw these scenes. Then, three decades later, he chose them for his own theme and design. Thus, the 1931 Society of Medalists Issue #3 became his offering to this young series by American Sculptors.
The following are just a few of the sculptures and monuments, which re-capture some of the Native American culture and history first observed in this 1895 trip to the Hopi (Moqui) people.
- 1894 “Primitive Indian Music” ~ family heirloom
- 1895 “Chief Manuelito” statue ~Gallup, New Mexico
- 1897 “The Moqui Runner” Modeled 1896, Cast 1897
- 1901 “Primitive Chant to the Great Spirit” ~ Smithsonian American Art Museum – Washington, DC
- 1901 “Sun Vow” Art Institute of Chicago
- 1901 “Sun Vow” Metropolitan Museum ~NYC
- 1903 “Chief of the Multnomah Tribe”, Met Museum, NYC
- 1904 “The Coming of the White Man #2” ~ Queens, NYC ~ Poppenhusen
- 1904 “The Coming of the White Man” ~ Portland
By comparison, the SOM’s issued from:
- 1930 to 1944. ~ struck 2X to 5X this quantity of SILVER medallions.
- 1945 to 1950. ~ those SOM silver issues were minted in quantities of 50 to 60.
- 1950 to 1972. ~ NO silver medallions were struck.
- 1973 to 1979. ~ Silver medallions ranged from 140-200.
- No Silver coins were struck from 1980-1995
- In 1995 the “Society of Medalists Series” closed production.
In 1931 design the the Society of Medalist medal #3, Hermon MacNeil chose to immortalize his memory of these images from 1895 in rare silver — 99.9% fine silver!
A Rare Beauty Indeed. Hi Ho, Silver !
MacNeil Display MacNeil Medallion (front and reverse) in Center. Framed by 10 SOM #3 (Obverse & reverse) of varied patinas. SOURCE: Collection of Webmaster
SOURCES:
Information taken from the six page list entitled: Medal Collectors of America; Checklist of “The Society of Medalists” Issues 1930 – Date. Originally written by D. Wayne Johnson with rights retained by him; used with permission.
His listing includes the original pricing supplied by Paul Bosco in the inaugural issue of the MCA’s publication “The Medal Cabinet” (Summer 2000) for the silver issues and Paul’s update values for the bronze pieces that appeared in the Spring/Summer 2002 edition of “The MCA Advisory.”
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Jun
29
2017
A never before seen or documented bronze piece from Hermon MacNeil’s earliest years as a sculptor has surfaced through a recent email message. The surprise came the other day to the website as a one line description and a surprising question.
“Black Pipe the Sioux” a small 6″ high, bas relief with the initials H M. 94.
Can you tell me more about Black Pipe?”Carol Miles
The request came from Massachusetts not far from where Hermon MacNeil was born and grew up in Chelsea (Everett, Malden). It included this photo: 
Thus began an email correspondence with Carol Miles that linked Hermon Atkins MacNeil (1866-1947) with Henry Turner Bailey (1865-1931).
Link #1: Henry Turner Bailey — Both Bailey and MacNeil graduated of Massachusetts Normal Art School. They were classmates for at least three years until MacNeil graduated in 1886 followed by Bailey in 1887. Both began studies there in their late teen years.
According to Carol: “Henry became the first Supervisor of Drawing for the State of Massachusetts, and later Dean of the Cleveland School of Art. Henry’s papers are housed at the Univ. of Oregon Archives, Eugene. There is correspondence between the two men there.”
Link #2: Black Pipe sculpture –This bas relief of Black Pipe was acquired by Henry Turner Bailey, the grandfather of the current owner. It has been handed down through the family ever since.
I have found no previous mention or photo of this piece. I have seen another photo of a different sculpture of Black Pipe by MacNeil in the Smithsonian Institute collections online
MacNeil’s bronze of Black Pipe, a Sioux warrior he befriended in 1893 (source Smithsonian Archives)
( http://collections.si.edu/search/results.htm?q=MacNeil&start=20 ).
The story of Black Pipe is told in dozens of stories on this site. A search brings up 14 posts that can be viewed at this link. Only six stories appear on each page. Be sure to view all three pages.
BLACK PIPE link — BLACK PIPE in 14 STORIES
https://hermonatkinsmacneil.com/?s=Black+Pipe
:::::
The Smithsonian Collestions data base offers the following info on the photo of Black Pipe. See: [ http://collections.si.edu/search/results.htm?q=MacNeil&start=20 ]
The Soiux Brave Blackpipe [sculpture] / (photographed by A. B. Bogart) digital asset number 1
ARTIST:
MacNeil, Hermon Atkins 1866-1947
PHOTOGRAPHER:
Bogart, A. B.
TYPE:
Photograph
NOTES:
On photo mount label: H. A. MacNeil. Blackpipe the Soiux. Bogart. Classification number: 282. Accession: 4747[cropped].
TOPIC:
Ethnic–Sioux
Figure male–Head
IMAGE NUMBER:
SSC S0001642
SEE MORE ITEMS IN:
Photograph Archives
DATA SOURCE:
Archives and Special Collections, Smithsonian American Art Museum
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May
13
The Lewis and Clark Expedition — First Views of the Pacific and on to Portland
Posted by: | CommentsThe next several story-postings on www.HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com will document my “Searching for Uncle Hermon” in Portland, Oregon.
The Astoria Column high over the city overlooks the Pacific Ocean and the mouth of the Columbia River. Here Lewis and Clark reached the ocean in 1805 and wintered there. Donna and I visited here before driving on into Portland.
In 1804, President Thomas Jefferson commissioned Second Lieutenant William Clark. and Captain Meriwether Lewis to lead an expedition exploring the Louisiana Purchase Territories. Their goal, in part, was to search the territory for a possible river passage to the Pacific. 
Wall mural of Lewis and Clark Expedition in Jake’s Restaurant the In the lobby of the old Hotel Governor, Portland Oregon.
While they did not find a contiguous river route to the sea, they did reach the Pacific at what is now Astoria, Oregon.
On November 20, 1805 they encounter the Pacific Ocean at the mouth of the Columbia River.
A monument there, the Astoria Column, sits atop the high bluff overlooking the Columbia River as it flows into the Pacific Ocean. 
Donna and I came to Portland for four days to observe and document the “Coming of The White Man.” This 1904 sculpture by “Uncle Hermon” marks the westward most reach of his public monuments.
— The year 1904 marked the Centennial of the Lewis and Clark adventure. MacNeil’s opportunity to place a monument here in Portland came at the invitation of a prominent Portland Family, the David P. Thompson family.
At last we had arrived.
H. A. MacNeil’s Tribute to Portland, the indigenous Multnomah tribe, and the Centenary of the Lewis and Clark Expedition was in hiking distance.
After writing about it for 10 years, “The Coming of The White Man” statue was on the agenda for the next morning!
As it unfolded, the day was beautiful and pictures stunning.
Webmaster Dan has arrived at another MacNeil Sculpture.
Sacajawea appears in Jake’s Grill murals.
MORE TO COME – stay tuned …
Webmaster Dan has come to the “The Coming of The White Man” statue after writing for 10 years about it on this site. The day was beautiful and pictures stunning.
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Dec
25
MacNeil – Brooks 120th Anniversary (1895-2015)
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Carol Brooks MacNeil – 1907 – Twelve years after her marriage to Hermon
H.A.MacNeil ~1895 sketch – The Sun (New York City)
On Christmas Day one dozen decades ago, Hermon A. MacNeil and Carol Louise Brooks were married in Chicago, Illinois. The pair were both sculptors who met while working on the World’s Colombian Exposition of 1893, better known as the Chicago World’s Fair.
Carol was a student of Lorado Taft and became one of the White Rabbits. These female sculptors were hired (commissioned) to help finish the 100’s of sculptures needed to finish the buildings, fountains, arcades, for the White City of the Chicago Worlds Fair.
Previous postings celebrate this MacNeil-Brooks Wedding:
Eda Lord’s Chicago World’s Fair Ticket from ‘Chicago Day.’ (Her great-great grandson, Jim Dixon found it an a box of her memobilia from the era when she bought her MacNeil sculpture.)
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May
31
Another of Hermon MacNeil’s “Chief of the Multnomah” Discovered in Vernon, New Jersey
Posted by: | CommentsHermon MacNeil’s “Chief of the Multnomah” was cast in full size and half size versions. This one was Discovered by a reader of this website several years ago in Vernon, New Jersey. Here was a brief note that was sent to the website:
Another Chief of the Multnomah
I’ve been noticing a magnificent piece of the scultpture for the past few years, located in Vernon N.J. at the Minerals Spa and Resort. After closer examination I discovered it is Chief Multnomah with his arms crossed, standing on tip toes looking outward. “The coming of the white man” is the title usually ascribed to this work, but in this case the chief stands alone without his scout or assistant as pictured on your web-site. It is signed simply, H.A. Macneil S.C. 04. Just thought it was a variation of the piece that you might find interesting.I’m not really sure how long its been there, because I’m relatively new to the area. Being a sculptor myself and one that is particularly fond on the late 19th cent/early 20th cent period, with the likes of Rodin, Bayre, Dega, etc. Macneil certainly is a strong and salutory member of that period. Regards, D. Moldoff.
My response was as follows:
Dear D. L. Moldoff,
Thanks for noticing sculpture around you and sharing the information. The ‘Chief Multnomah’ is the larger Half of H. A. MacNeil’s “The Coming of the White Man.” (COTWM). While the COTWM piece is only at the Washington Park in Portland, OR, where it was commissioned for that city. The original plaster sculpture model is in the Poppenhusen Institute in Queens, NYC, just blocks from MacNeil’s studio.
(Click HERE ) for link to my archives of seven post on Chief of the Mulnomah.)
There are multiple castings of this single piece, the “Chief Multnomah”, possibly over 20 in total. I believe there are at lease two groupings of 12 casts and 9 casts of this statue. I have found information and location on three other ‘Multnomah’s. Plus there are many smaller (half-scale) casts of this sculpture.
Thanks again.
Dan Leininger
These are the related entries for this story. For MORE see these previous posts:
- Hermon MacNeil ~ Postcard ~ 2012 MacNeil Month #1 ~ “Coming of the White Man” (9)
- Poppenhusen Institute makes MacNeil Collection Appeal! (8)
- Portland – Coming of the White Man (7)
- “Chief of the Multnomah” ~ DO WE HAVE ONE? ~ ??????? (7)
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Feb
01
“Sun Vow” Video Starts MacNeil Month 2015
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Hermon Atkins MacNeil about the time of his Standing Liberty works.
Hermon A. MacNeil Commemorative sketched by Artist Charles D. Daughtrey as the seventh work in his Series of Coin Designers is available at http://www.cdaughtrey.com/
Here at the HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com website we celebrate every February as
“MacNeil Month”
in honor of the birth of
Hermon Atkins MacNeil
February 27th, 1866.
This is the first of several postings that will celebrate this theme. Hermon’s older cousin, Tom Henry MacNeil (my grandfather), was born on February 29th, 1860. So February is MacNeil Month in several ways.
Here is a recent video of the Sun Vow to start off our month of celebration:
[ CLICK HERE to SEE “SUN VOW” video ]
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Jan
09
Searching for Uncle Hermon in Chicago ~ Part 2 ~ “Vow of Vengeance”
Posted by: | Comments2015
My recent post about our December 3rd journey on the CTA Blue Line train to the Chicago Loop and the Art Institute of Chicago ended with a discussion of “The Sun Vow” and my photo array taken in the Sculpture Court. [Searching for Uncle Hermon in Chicago ~ “The Sun Vow” ]
Another MacNeil piece just steps away in the adjoining American Gallery provides a “preface” to the story of “The Sun Vow”.
Modeled in 1894 that earlier piece was called “Vow of Vengeance.” It shows one of MacNeil’s early studies in Native American depiction. It followed his exposure to the Chicago World Fair, his fascination with sketching the Indians in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, and his modeling work with Black Pipe. (Black Pipe was a young Sioux who worked in Hermon’s studio and modeled for several pieces during 1893-94. He helped with physical labor in the studio as well. CLICK for MORE on Black Pipe and “Primitive Chant”)
MacNeil’s early study “Vow of Vengeance” that evolved into “The Sun Vow”. Art Institute of Chicago. [ Photo Credit: Dan Leininger, 2014 ]
Several pieces dated 1894 seemed to be early prototypes for later larger works and castings. The “Vow of Vengeance” appears to be one of the more prominent. I know of no other copies elsewhere.
A blog about the Art Institute observes some mingling of the identity of the two pieces:
The Vow of Vengeance -1894
By Hermon Atkins MacNeil.
What’s in a name?
Well, somehow I noticed a discrepancy in the name..
The Art Institute website calls it – The Vow of Vengeance [1894]
But marker at the Art Institute has the name – The Sun Vow [Modeled-1898, Cast-1901]. http://theartinstituteofchicago.blogspot.com/2010_12_01_archive.html.
The Two “Vows” Compared 
While the “Vow of Vengeance” and “The Sun Vow” contain similar elements, what they communicate seems quite different:
- TITLE: The two titles carry contrasting emotional messages. The first (Vow of Vengeance) conveys negative aggression and hostile feeling toward some enemy, while the second (Sun Vow) depicts a more positive rite of passage from boyhood to manhood within a setting of family and tribal affirmation.
- GROUPING: The boy and the Elder (Warrior, Chief) are grouped to convey different emotional tones in the two pieces. In “Vengeance,” the chief wears his war bonnet on his head. He is dressed to present tribal authority to the enemy. His face seems harsh and his posture stiff. The Boy strains his head high up into the air. Their grouping seems tense.
In “Sun Vow” the two figures are closer and seem to be “more one.” The Chief has removed his bonnet so as to lean into the boy’s line of sight. The boy is also more grace-full. He looks to the arrow and the sun without straining. Both gaze in the seeming wonder and mystical pleasure of the physical rite.
1894 ~ Prototype Year:
In addition to the “Vow of Vengeance” we have found evidence of another prototype from 1894.
A previous posting tells James Dixon’s story of a MacNeil piece acquired by his Great-great grandmother, Edna Lord. The sculpture bears the title “Primitive Music” on its base. [ CLICK Here for more ]
Photos on that previous post suggest that Edna Lord’s “Primitive Indian Music” was an early prototype of the “Primitive Chant” (which was much more polished and finely surfaced)
It is also based on “Black Pipe”, the young Sioux Brave. MacNeil first saw Black Pipe at the Buffalo Bills Wild West Show and we know that he returned many times to study the Indians. Like MacNeil, I have return to this story of “Black Pipe”, the young Sioux Brave, numerous times, and perhaps, will return many more. ~~ DNL
Hermon MacNeil ~ After the World’s Columbian Exposition
The period after the end of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair was a lean, even dry time, financially for Hermon MacNeil. We do know that he continued to maintain a studio, sculpt models, teach at the Art Institute of Chicago, and associate with art colleagues and benefactors there. Yet, it seems a productive time of transition, expression, and experimentation for the as the young sculptor.
Traveling to the Art Museum, we walked out of the underground on Dearborn Street just a block south of the Marquette Building which is home to Hermon MacNeil’s 1895 sculptures of 4 bronze relief panels [Cick Here]. This commission marked his recognition and selection for the award of the Rinehart Roman Scholarship. This began 3 years in Rome and another in Paris for he and his young bride, Carol Brooks. The bronze reliefs stands today as an icon to Marquette and his life among the Native peoples. The building has been restored by the MacArthur Foundation and now houses their international headquarters.
Those works tell the story Father Marquette explorations to Native peoples of Illinois. MacNeil would return to Chicago and the Marquette themes three decades later as he sculpted the bronze grouping [CLICK HERE] of Pere Marquette, Louis Jolliete, and an Illinois Indian on Marshall Boulevard. Commissioned by the Benjamin Franklin Ferguson Monument Fund, this sculpture has faced the greenway of the boulevard for 88 years.
Our trip was a satisfying success as our daughter took our pictures at the foot of the Monument.
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Dec
19
Searching for Uncle Hermon in Chicago ~ “The Sun Vow” (cont.)
Posted by: | CommentsOn a cold December day we took the CTA Blue Line to Jackson street and walked out of the underground on Dearborn Street at the Federal Court Building. We were just a block south of the Marquette Building which is home to Hermon MacNeil’s 1895 sculptures of 4 bronze relief panels [Cick Here] that tell the story Father Marquette explorations to Native peoples of Illinois.
We walked past the Federal Courts, then turned east toward the Art Institute of Chicago.
There sculptor Edward Kemeys’ twin bronze Lions (Mr. Defiance and Mr. Prowl) greeted us at the entrance in their Holiday regalia. They have stood guard there since 1893 when Mrs. Henry Field commissioned them.
Above is “Mister ‘In-an-Attitude-of-Defiance’,” as he rests on a Christmas package that normally is his base. The mood was festive as sixty people smiled and waited on the steps (between Mr. Prowler and Mr. Defiance) until the Museum doors were opened at 10 am.
1) Prowler and Defiance, 2)Mrs. Henry Field, and 3) Hermon MacNeil are all contemporaries of the 1893-95 era of the Chicago World’s Fair (Worlds Columbian Exposition).
Once inside we spent the morning admiring early art of Dutch and French collections. Eventually, we came opon a fovorite, Jules Adolphe Breton’s The Song of the Lark, (1884).
Part of the Field Collection, French artist, Jules Adolphe Breton’s The Song of the Lark, 1884. is admired by a happy visitor.
After some lunch in the modern art area, we went to find MacNeil’s “Sun Vow”. Here are my results.
While I could go on-and-on about this most famous of Uncle Hermon’s works, I will let my photographs speak for themselves. Enjoy!
.
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Nov
02
MacNeil’s “The Sun Vow” ~~ MacNeil Postcard #1 Revisited
Posted by: | Comments“The Sun Vow”, Hermon MacNeil’s earliest acclaimed work, was exhibited around the world and still can be visited in museums and galleries today. This old photo postcard was purchased recently by the editor.
“The Sun Vow” By Hermon Atkins MacNeil is seen here in an early B&W Photograph Postcard by photographer Gabriel Moulin, probably dating from the 1929 Exhibition of the National Sculpture Society at the newly completed California Palace of Legion of Honor, San Francisco.
“The Sun Vow” is pictured here in an early B&W Postcard by photographer Gabriel Moulin.
The likeness probably dates from the 1929 Exhibition of the National Sculpture Society at the newly completed California Palace of Legion of Honor, San Francisco.
The “Sun Vow” was also exhibited by MacNeil in the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, as well as, Exhibitions in Paris, Buffalo, and Saint Louis. The story of California Palace and its permanent reconstruction is an interesting one:
“The California Palace of the Legion of Honor originated as the French pavilion in San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915. Alma de Bretteville Spreckels was so impressed with the pavilion that she offered to construct a permanent museum in its likeness, which was completed in 1924 and now stands as the Legion of Honor.”
(https://legionofhonor.famsf.org/legion/collections )
Thus the 1929 exhibit gave birth to this historic photo by Moulin. An previous image of this postcard was posted several years ago on this website at [click here]
https://hermonatkinsmacneil.com/2011/04/07/postcard-1-the-sun-vow-h-a-macneil-in-bw/
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Dec
31
“Chief of the Multnomah” ~ DO WE HAVE ONE? ~ ???????
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Base inscription on “Chief of the Multnomah” at Mount Vernon and Knox County Library of Mt. Vernon, Ohio
Last summer I received an email from Linette Porter-Metler of the Mount Vernon and Knox County Library of Mount Vernon, Ohio. She enclosed the photos you see below.
Linette entitled her email, “DO WE HAVE ONE?” Here is what she said:
Thanks for your website!
We are a four-library public library system in Central Ohio. All year, we have been celebrating our 125th Anniversary here as a public library in Mount Vernon, Ohio, and during our research we found that one of our sculptures donated to us in 1936 by a Dr. Freeman Ward may be one of The Chief of the Multnomah statues shown on your site. But it does have some differences as you can see by the photo compared to the one on your site at the New York museum.
Ours does not seem to have a number stating it was one of the copies (i.e. 4/20)..All it has is his name, the word “Multnomah”, and the number “03” etched on the side of his footrest. I will send photos. Also, there is a copper? Twisted piece at top of bow near his shoulder.
I will enclose as many photos as I can. If you have any further information to share with us about this, we would appreciate it!
Thanks!
Linette Porter-Metler, Community Relations / Public Affairs, Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County, 201 N. Mulberry Street, Mount Vernon, OHIO
My answer is simply:
YES, MT. VERNON,
YOU HAVE ONE !
Another “Chief of the Mulnomah” discovered at Mt. Vernon, Ohio.
H. A. MACNEIL signature on the Multnomah statue with the year ’03’ (as in 1903).
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Dec
22
MacNeil “Merry Christmas”
Posted by: | CommentsChristmas Greetings from the home of Hermon and Carol MacNeil.
Pictured below is a tinted postcard of their studio which ajoined their home on College Point. Beneath that you can see their actual 1922 Christmas card drawn by Hermon MacNeil for their friends. Married on Christmas Day in 1895, this is also Hermon and Carol’s 27th Wedding Anniversary. (CLICK for MORE)
Note how Hermon’s Christmas card sketch resembles his “Sun Vow” pair of Native Americans from a quarter century earlier.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
from the MacNeil’s of College Point just 91 years ago.
MacNeil studio in College Point
MacNeil Christmas card 1922 (photo courtesy of – James Haas)
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Nov
01
HOPI – “Prayer for Rain” by Hermon A. MacNeil
Posted by: | CommentsHermon Atkins MacNeil (1866-1947) – “Hopi” (Obverse) and “Prayer for Rain” (Reverse) Society of Medallists (SOM), Issue #3 of 1931, was based on MacNeil’s “Moqui (Hopi) Runner” statue of 1897. This was the only SOM issue that MacNeil would ever sculpt. Yet nearly fifty years later (1943), he vividly described these images of his 1895 travels to the Hopi (Moqui) Mesa in his Autobiographical Sketches.
MacNeil’s brief artists intro accompanying the medal is as follows:
Four examples of various finish patinas on medals that MacNeil selected for SOM#3 in 1931 (Reverse view. From collection of Dan Leininger, webmaster)
“The two incidents of the Hopi Prayer for Rain on the mesas of northeastern Arizona depicted on this medal are chosen by your sculptor because of the extraordinary vital enthusiasm and power that the Indians throw into this ceremony. Having witnessed it and been thrilled by the intensity of their emotion and on further study by the complicated and perfectly natural development of this drama, I cannot help feel that in it we find a basic note underlying all religions. All these Southwest Indians, living as they do in an arid region, have developed their religion along the lines of their greatest need –water.”
In the documentation accompanying each medal, MacNeil offered the following additional narrative of his witnessing of this ritual nearly 36 years earlier while on his 1895 venture to the Southwest with Hamlin Garland and Charles F. Browne:
“This is one of their greatest and most important ceremonies. Occurring in August, it is filled with ritualism for nine days and in their kiva, an underground chamber, they have ceremonies with these snakes that have been gathered by the antelope and snake clans of their tribe for six days, from the north, east, south and west, also from above and below, therefore from all the directions of the universe. These snakes, so far as our best authority goes, although a portion of them are poisonous varieties, are not tampered with but are handled freely by the Indians, both during their underground ceremonies, and later on the last day above ground, in their public ceremony. During the last day ceremony they dance two and two, one with the snakes in his mouth, sometimes two at a time, while the other, accompanying him, wards off the head of the snake from the face of his companion with an eagle feather. It will be remembered that the eagle preys on the snake in nature and the smell of the eagle feather is supposed to frighten the snake with the intention of preventing him from biting. This ceremony was so intense and apparently so vital to them that although I myself saw two Indians bitten, they seem to be so completely under the control of the spirit that although I watched for further developments, yet there seemed to be no swelling or poisonous effects from the bites.
Even though the dancing takes place after the participants have taken hardly any food during the nine days, yet immediately after the public ceremony, which is performed in a circular action around the sacred stone on the mesa at Waslpi, they each take an emetic. After circling twice around the sacred rock, the one bearing snakes in his mouth emits them and a third follower immediately grabs the snake from the ground and carries it back to a little improvised enclosure of cottonwood boughs. After all the snakes have been used on this manner each Indian grabs into the bunch and with his hands filled with the snakes, each one starts running down the trail off the mesa onto the plains as shown on the reverse side of the medal and figuratively deposits the snakes again in their underground abodes.
Obverse of SOM#3 by Hermon MacNeil (collection of Dan Leininger, webmaster)
Behind the heads of the dancers on the obverse is shown the sand picture drawn by the Indians themselves with colored earths on the floor of their kiva or underground chamber, about which they performed sacred ceremonials previous to the public dance. On this side of the medal the attempt is also made to show the apparent basic reason for the use of the snake in this prayer for water. This reason or theory seems to have evolved from the similarity in action between the snake on the earth and the lightning in the sky. The Indian, however, has evolved the theory of a kind of cousinship through these angular moving reptiles with the still more angular movement of the lightning to jar the rain clouds for rain, thus making their chief need their strongest prayer. Curiously enough, although there had been no sign of rain for weeks, the day following the remarkable ceremony, a little cloud appeared in the sky and the next day it rained copiously.”
[ SOURCE: Society of Medalists documentation accompanying the medals; reproduced at “Medals4Trade” ]
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1931 “Moqui Rain Dance” (Obverse) SOM #3 ~ Dan Leininger, webmaster
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May
15
The Twisted Truth and Lasting Legend of the Pony Express
Posted by: | CommentsFollowing-up the previous post of April 23, 2013, I offer this fascinating link to a great lecture on the colorful legend of the Pony Express. Author Christopher Corbett [ CLICK HERE ] spoke about his book “Orphans Preferred: The Twisted Truth and Lasting Legend of the Pony Express” His 54 minute YouTube video shares humorous stories of Buffalo Bill, Pony Express, and research findings. The presentation includes questions from the audience, as well.
The Pony Express at St Joseph, Missouri. Dan Leininger, webmaster, has visited it many times as a small boy. Now it is part of his ongoing research on Hermon MacNeil.
Hermon MacNeil’s last sculpture was the Pony Express Rider erected in 1940 in Saint Joseph, Missouri. A skit of the Pony Express was a feature of every show given by Buffalo Bill Cody. We can thank Buffalo Bill for infecting American History with the Pony Express legend. He even infected world history with images of the Pony Express. Hermon MacNeil became captivated by the images of the Native American Indians (Black Pipe and others) in head. He was first introduced to those visions in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show outside of the front gates of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. After this MacNeil traveled to the Southwestern United States. That experience affected him profoundly. From then on, he produced sculptures and returned to those images of Native Americans and Indian themes throughout his life.
In 1890 Buffalo Bill rode his troop around Vatican City for the Pope. I never rode with the Pony Express, and neither did Buffalo Bill, though he was the right age to do it in 1860 (He did ride as a courier as a very young boy). However, I almost got a Pony Express ornament for my 1939 LaSalle in 2012 (see below). The statue is MacNeil’s. The LaSalle is mine. (The trailer belongs to Chris Carlsen.) The location is Saint Joseph, Missouri. Enough foolishness, already. Below are more Pony Express images from St. Joe.
BELOW IS MORE OF THE LEGEND AS CAPTURED BY HERMON ATKINS MACNEIL
Details of the mail bags as MacNeil modeled them after Dr. S. Mededith Strong’s authentic Pony express gear, spurs, saddle, mail bags, from the 1930’s.
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May
07
“PRIMITIVE INDIAN MUSIC” ~ Part 3: 1894 Eda Lord’s Ticket to the Chicago World’s Fair
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Eda Lord's Chicago World's Fair Ticket from 'Chicago Day.' Her great-grandson, Jim Dixon found it an a box of memorabilia from the era when she bought her MacNeil sculpture.
Eda Lord, (the woman who purchased the MacNeil bronze statue, “Primitive Indian Music” ~ 1894), attended the World’s Columbian Exposition on “Chicago Day.” Jim Dixon sent us a scan of his great-grandmother’s actual Ticket to the Chicago World’s Fair.
Eda Lord was not alone. Chicago Day was packed. A total of 716,881 people attended for “Chicago Day,” October 9, 1893. That day commemorated the anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The ‘Chicago Day’ marked Chicago’s rebirth.
Every day of the Chicago World’s Fair marked the city’s arrival on the world-scene. While New York City, Washington, D.C., and St.Louis, had all competed for this ‘Columbian’ 400-year-extravaganza, Chicago won the honors (and labors). The CWE invited America to come take notice that this western-railroad-cattletown was now a cultural-financial center. Like Columbus himself, the European “Old World” of art and architecture had crossed the Atlantic Ocean and resurrected in this “New World” of American progress, industry, and prosperity. Now along the shore of this inland Great Lake a “White City” fantasy had emerged. Crafted from the hands, talents, and imaginations of American “Beaux Arts” artists, sculptors and architects.
"Chicago Day" Crowds -- October 9, 1893 -- 716,881 people attended that day which commemorated the anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. (http://www.chicagohs.org/history/expo.html)
And like Eda Lord, from all over the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, Asia and the world, they came. In total, over 27,000,000 million people attended the entire 1893 Columbia International Exposition. That number was half of the US population of 54 million then.
I told Jim Dixon that just seeing his Great-Grandmother Eda’s ticket made me wonder:
- How old was Eda Lord when she attended the Fair?
- Who would she go with?
- Would a lady attend alone?
- She lived in Evanston, north of the city. She could have rode the train from there in less than an hour into the “White City”.
- She might have passed the “Buffalo Bill Wild West Show” on her way to the main Gate.
Here is what Jim told us about the ticket:
Daniel –
I started pouring through the boxes of family history tonight. I have a long way to go, but I found something that is perhaps a clue. Of all things, Eda Lord saved a ticket stub from the World’s Columbian Exposition for “Chicago Day” on Oct 9th 1893. The ticket is numbered and obviously a part was torn off. It is in perfect shape. Attached is a scan of the ticket. Much more exploring to do and I will send along anything relevant that I find.
Jim Dixon
Well Jim, You have quite a find! That is a valuable souvenir. And a family history keepsake.
HERMON ATKINS MACNEIL:
Hermon MacNeil was there as well. For three years he worked on drawings, plans and sculpture.
"Primitive Indian Music" Hermon A. MacNeil 1894, 24 inches, bronze. Purchased by Eda Lord about 1894-5.
MacNeil sculpted figures on the Electricity building (MORE HERE). He was only 27 years old then. He had returned from study in Paris from about 1888 – 1890. He came to Chicago to work with Phillip Martiny. Some say he stopped in New York to get a letter of recommendation from August Saint-Gaudens to give to Martiny in Chicago.
A hundred or more artists sculpted the White City. Many would be MacNeil’s contemporaries and colleagues through his life. Carol Brooks, who Hermon MacNeil would marry two years later, was also one of the women sculptors called in at the last months to finish the plaster-staff statues that adorned the Fair. (Carol had studied sculpture with both Lorado Taft and Frederick William MacMonnies) Carol was also a member of “The White Rabbits” ~ a self-christened group of women sculptors called in to complete the massive work load of ‘staff’ statues needed for the Chicago Fair in 1893. ).
Also to see my post CLICK HERE (look for their ‘Marriage’ paragraph.)
HERE ARE CLOSE-UP PHOTOS THAT SUGGEST THAT THIS “Primitive Indian Music” PIECE WAS AN EARLY PROTO-TYPE OF THE “PRIMITIVE CHANT” STATUE (WHICH WAS MUCH MORE REFINED AND POLISHED IN ITS CASTING FINISH.)
It is also based on “Black Pipe”, the young Sioux Brave. MacNeil first saw Black Pipe at the Buffalo Bills Wild West Show and we know that he returned many times to study the Indians. ( I have ordered two books on Buffalo Bills Wild West Show, the Indians, conditions, treatment etc.)
We will return to the story of “Black Pipe”, the young Sioux Brave. Perhaps, like MacNeil, we will return many times. ~~ DNL
Facial roughness of "Primitive Indian Music" bronze cast from 1894 suggests it is an early MacNeil attempt. His 1901 casts of "Primitive Chant" are more polished.
Sculpting marks on thigh and hip of 1894 "Primitive Indian Music" bronze cast suggest it is an early MacNeil attempt. His 1901 casts of "Primitive Chant" are more polished.
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Apr
29
"Primitive Indian Music" - A rare 1894 bronze casting of a sculpture later refined and cast in multiple copies as the "Primitive Chant to the great Spirit."
A recent inquiry from James Dixon has revealed a previously unseen 1894 bronze casting entitled “Primitive Indian Music.” The piece appears to be an early (or earliest) proto-type of “The Primitive Chant to the Great Spirit” by Hermon A. MacNeil dated 1901.
MacNeil marked this earlier piece on the base in block letters. He signed it simply “MACNEIL Sc”
It is dated [ ’94 ] similar to the Marquette Building panels of 1895, some of which are dated [ ’95]. SEE detail below:
"MACNEiL 95" reads this signature on Panel 3 of Marquette Building, Chicago. (Detail from lower right corner - Note; mocassin foot in showshoe above signature.)
This ‘Dixon’ piece is marked like no other bronzes of the “Primitive Chant.” All others are dated 1901. Jim tells us that his great grandmother, Eda Lord, lived in Evanston, Illinois, and purchased the statue between 1890 and 1900.
Jim Dixon knows this, because the sculpture has been in his family for four generations. He found our website seeking more information on his family’s MacNeil art piece. Here’s how Jim shares his family’s story:
My Great Grandmother, Eda Lord, purchased a MacNeil sculpture in the late 1800’s when she lived in Evanston, Illinois. The sculpture made its way down the family tree to my Grandmother and then to my mom and dad and it was passed on to me when my mom passed away last year. The statue is of an Indian boy and is about 24″ tall (bronze) It is labeled “Primitive Indian Music MacNeil s: ’94” My review of the works of MacNeil pointed to the sculpture entitled “A primitive chant to the Great Spirit” at the Smithsonian Museum. My observation of the photo of “A primitive Chant…” lead me to believe that the two sculptures are the same. It this possible? Were multiple casting made of these statues? Was it common to re-cast the statue at a later time? I would be happy to send digital photos of the sculpture for your records, review and comments. Any further information you may have on this statue would be appreciated.
Thank you for your time and assistance.
James Dixon
The partial title "PRIMITIVE IND..." is visible here
Hers is partial title "Indian Music" and "MACNEIL Sc" with date " '94"
This photo of markings on the piece read “PRIMITIVE…” and the next photo continues “INDIAN MUSIC”. The signature bears no initials, only the full last name, “MACNEIL Sc”. Additional marks include a date [ ‘ 94 ]. These markings are consistent with MacNeil’s pre-1900 dates on the Marquette Panels — last name only with no initials. The block letter ( MACNEIL ) is “identical to Panel #3 of the Marquette Building. In addition, consider the following:
- No foundry marks appear on this Dixon Family heirloom.
- More importantly no RBW (Roman Bronze Works) initials or name appears on the casting. Roman Bronze Works is where most museum pieces of this work were cast. They also bear the date of 1901. RBW opened its doors in 1900 the same time that Hermon MacNeil settled in College Point, Queens, NYC, New York.
- The absence of RBW’s distinguishing mark, as found on the 1901 casts, and the Dixon family story of acquisition would seem to indicate a date before 1900 for the casting of this piece.
- The story of Hermon MacNeil and his hiring of Black Pipe (see previous post dated April 25, 2012) as a studio assistant and model are consistent with an 1894 dating of this piece. In this conversation with J Walker McSpadden in 1924, MacNeil recalled the events:
- MACNEIL: “Yes, and you may find it an interesting yarn. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show had been in Chicago during the Fair, and one of his braves was Black Pipe, a Sioux, a fine-looking fellow. He had stayed behind, and one day I met him on the streets, looking hungry and cold, and asked him if he wanted something to do. He did there was no doubt about that. I took him into the studio, fed him up, and then set to work modeling his head. I finished it in four hours, for I was not sure that I would ever see my Indian again; but he stayed with me in all for a year and a half, helping me with odd jobs about the studio. That’s his head there.”
- It was a life-size bronze, which he indicated, not done in full relief but resting on a plaque a strong piece of portraiture.
- MCSPADDEN: “In this and your later work with Indians,” I inquired, “did you have any trouble about making their likenesses? Some of them object to being photographed.”
- MACNEIL: “Yes, many of the older Indians object; they think it takes the spirit out of them. But Black Pipe had been among white folks long enough to know better, and with others I managed to get around their superstitions. Black Pipe, by the way, posed for ‘The [312] Primitive Chant 5 which is one of my best-known Indian subjects.”
- This is the spirited figure of a naked savage dancing to the music of his own flute. It has been widely copied in art prints. [ Source: Joseph Walker McSpadden, Famous Sculptors of America, (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1924) pp. 311-12. ]
- This figure also appears to also be based on Black Pipe. CLICK HERE for more on MacNeil and Black Pipe
- The only other evidence of a MacNeil Bronze from this period (1894) is “the Vow to Vengeance” in the Art Institute of Chicago which lists a date marking on 1894 as well. SEE AIC Website HERE.
Many old photos of ‘plaster casts’ of this sculpture appear in museum archives. This ‘Dixon’ bronze appears to be a very different find than other models, either plaster or bronze.
WEBMASTER’S COMMENTS:
- Thanks Jim for the photos and inquiry.
- This seems a VERY early bronze casting from MacNeil’s 1893-1895 days at the Art Institute of Chicago (1893-1895).
- I have seen Plaster sculptures from this period but not Bronze casts. Perhaps, MacNeil was venturing (experimenting) into bronze castings. Another bronze from 1894 is this “Vow to Vengeance” which was an early version of the later “Sun Vow” [ SEE Art Institute of Chicago holdings: CLICK HERE ]
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This “Primitive Indian Music” seems an early version of his “Primitive Chant to the Great Spirit.” of 1901. Your piece seems to be a ‘first’ to me. Spelled RARE. There maybe others, but they are not in museum archives, or accessible on-line. I certainly have not seen them.
- All other bronze casts I have seen photos of date after 1900. This includes “Primitive Chant” from museums and auction house photos. All those have RBW initials from NYC -Roman Bronze Works.
- The work seems much less finished (polished). It appears rougher in texture (more primitive? early?). Not only Primitive Indian…, but also maybe Primitive MacNeil… ?
CONCLUSION (for now): This is a fascinating piece that seems to this non-curator-MacNeil-enthusiast to be one of Hermon’s earliest concepts of what he later cast as “Primitive Chant to the Great Spirit” in 1901.
That piece was cast by Roman Bronze Works when MacNeil settled there in his studio-home in College Point NYC.
NEXT: “Who was Eda Lord? And How did she become owner of this early MacNeil sculpture?
